12 Facts About Simon Stock

Simon Stock, OCarm was an English Catholic priest and saint who lived in the 13th century and was an early prior of the Carmelite order.

Simon Stock was born in England and became an early leader of the Order soon after it migrated to that country.

Historical evidence about Simon Stock's life comes primarily from medieval catalogues of saints and of Carmelite priors general, which are not consistent with one another in their details.

The surname "Stock" appears in some documents but not in others, and is related to a story that Simon lived for a time in a hollow tree before the arrival of the Carmelites in England, in keeping with prophetic tradition.

Simon Stock is believed to have lived at Aylesford in Kent, a place that hosted in 1247 the first general chapter of the Carmelite Order held outside the Holy Land, and where there is still a monastery of Carmelite friars.

Simon Stock was probably the fifth or sixth prior general of the Carmelites.

Simon Stock is credited with founding houses in the university cities of that era, as in 1248 at Cambridge, in 1253 at Oxford, in 1260 at Paris and Bologna.

Simon Stock lived on a diet of herbs, roots and wild apples and drank only water.

The earliest extant liturgical office in Simon Stock's honour was composed in Bordeaux in France, and dates from 1435.

Simon Stock's bones are still preserved in a cathedral in Bordeaux; a tibia was brought to England in the 1860s for the Carmelite church in Kensington, London, and a part of the skull was enshrined at Aylesford in 1950.

Simon Stock is the patron saint of the English province of Discalced Carmelites.

The Carmelites continue to find meaning in the traditional story and iconography of Simon Stock receiving the scapular, particularly as reflecting their filial relationship with Mary.